El Rushbo is on quite a riff over this, including: No, I've not seen a volcano, other than the Big Island, Hawaii, but that thing's been erupting every day for a number of years. It's just sort of like pus coming out of a zit compared to the giant Pompeii eruption that you think of with a volcano.

But it's amazing what you can see up there. It's amazing what things do look like at an altitude.

They're not responding to every random inane thing someone says. They're showing how predictable liberals are by predicting them.

But I have a question for you. Why do liberals keep putting random words in quotes? Do you do it here because you presume conservatism means keeping shut up about every random thing?

It is not the equivalent of "Look, squirrel." Look squirrel is an occurrence within a thread to divert attention. This is a post unto itself that diverts attention from nothing at all. So you're just wrong all over the place.

I heard that on the BBC live stream. His first comment was how he had close ties with Japanese culture because he was from Hawaii. It stuck out like a sore thumb. Me, me, me. But enough about me; what do the Japanese Prime Minister and all the people in Japan think of me?

For some reason I cannot listen to Chris Matthews, or even think of him without the phrase "horse's ass" coming to mind.I'll bet this very same question was on the minds of all the Japanese people shortly after it hit. My first thought is always, "I wonder how this will affect Obama, and his image."

No, predictable. It shows just how small a man Barack Obama is that he needs someone so insignificant as Chris Matthews to masturbate over him on a daily basis.

Let's all remember that Chris Matthews' boss is Jerfrey Immelt, who is an official in the Obama government. As a result of this corrupt relationship, MSNBC parent company General Electric receives billions in government contracts steered to it by corrupt Democrats.

When there are billions of taxpayer dollars on the line, there will always be at least one person willing to become a creaming leg-tingling cheerleader even for someone as pathetic as Barack Obama.

Chris Matthews is that person. He makes millions a year masturbating over Barack Obama's every utterance.

I don't care about Chris Matthews and Rush Limbaugh. All CM does is shout and never let David Corn talk. It's embarrassing. But what about nuclear energy now? This is what no one ever desires to address. How about that, and less gossip about worthless radio and TV hosts.

Isn't this really revealing, though, of their concern that Americans believe that Barack Obama is hiding something about his origins.

Matthews has seen the internal polling; and they know that it's hurting them; and they're struggling with a way to alter the prevailing perception that not only does Barack Obama hate America, but that many people believe the reason is that he's probably not American.

Why else would a Japanese earthquake be an opportunity for the president to assert that he is American? To "remind" people he vacations in Hawaii often on the taxpayers dime?

Let's all remember that Chris Matthews' boss is Jerfrey Immelt, who is an official in the Obama government. As a result of this corrupt relationship, MSNBC parent company General Electric receives billions in government contracts steered to it by corrupt Democrats.

Ann is right to so closely monitor El Rushbo. I can't think of anyone who has a better instinctive feel, a better knack, more highly sensitive political antennae, for almost instantly zeroing in like radio Direction Finders on the more inane aspects of "Palace Politics"--of the totally warped and distorted values of the left wherever it reveals itself--be it at the municipal, county, state or national level, as revealed in any given situation. He invariably focuses like a laser on the more/most absurd tortured logic used by lefties to, without even a hint of any realization of the irony involved--advance their cause no matter how obscenely distorted they have to twist logic, facts, history or basic civility and decorum--all done by lefties with an absolutely shameless straight face. Rush is hip to the political gamesmanship of the left in all of its facets as few people are--perhaps as no one else is.

Perfectly reasonable, right? The globe gets warmer, warming objects expand, the Earth expands increasing the pressure between tectonic plates, presto - earthquakes. (Of course, if this was the case, we'd have an out break of earthquakes with the change of seasons each year.)

TODD: Look, do I think they thought this was another chance? No. I mean, they called this press conference because they hadn't had an opportunity to speak about gas prices.... This was a case where events crowded out the whole purpose of the press conference. That's an interesting theory. It certainly did give him an opportunity to remind folks of where he grew up and the folks he grew up with.

MATTHEWS: Yeah, it's pathetic he has to do that, but thank you so much, Chuck Todd."

Perfectly reasonable, right? The globe gets warmer, warming objects expand, the Earth expands increasing the pressure between tectonic plates, presto - earthquakes. (Of course, if this was the case, we'd have an out break of earthquakes with the change of seasons each year.)

That'd almost qualify as adorable, really, were it not for all the born gulls, slopebrows and cretins straining to uncritically gulp down each and every "inconvenient truth" this sloppy huckster ham-handedly offers up.

The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, For Immediate Release October 26, 2010

Michelle and I are deeply saddened by the loss of life, injuries, and damage that have occurred as a result of the recent earthquake and tsunami in West Sumatra. At the same time, I am heartened and encouraged by the remarkable resiliency of the Indonesian people and the commitment of their Government to rapidly assist the victims. As a friend of Indonesia, the United States stands ready to help in any way. Meanwhile, our thoughts and prayers are with the Indonesian people and all those affected by this tragedy.

The explosion at the reactor is certain to rattle confidence in nuclear power in Japan, victim of the only nuclear weapons explosions and where people have long been sensitized to the dangers of radioactive releases. In the United States, it will deal a severe blow to advocates of a nuclear power renaissance.

Um, yeah.

On the other hand, adults realize this was the 5th largest earth quake in recorded history that resulted in a tsunami and a subsequent nuclear reactor explosion.

The liberals at the Washington Post pretend these are every day occurrences...

Julius. The extreme sufferring from the Haiti earthquake was due to poor intrastructure. Anger at the French slave masters has caused the current hatred of capitalism and private property. Voodoo may not be cause of this hatred but there is correlation. The simple truth is that capitalism is need for a fair and healthy civilization. Destroy capitalism and things sucks. Crony capitalism as practiced by democrats now sucks too.

As opposed to believing that drilling for oil should be banned, no new refineries should be built, no nuclear reactors should be built but only the vaguely defined "green energy" can provide adequate energy needs for the United States.

You continue to dodge. You said adults realize, etc. I took that to mean that since it was the world's largest or 5th largest or whatever earthquake, then it was understandable that there was an explosion at a nuclear plant. Can you correct my impression or mis impression?

Earthquakes--esp at the level of 9.1 R are terrible things. The Japanese, who live on the ring of fire have done an admirable job of preparation and infrastructure protection. Sadly, there is only so much we has humans can do in the face of horrific events. As we come up on the 200 anniversary of the New Madrid event, I can safely say such an event would e equally clatacysmic for the central US.

Regretably we in the central US have planned far more poorly than have the Japanese.

Shockingly, yes.He did mention he grew up in Hawaii. He said that's why he felt close to the Japanese culture.As for the rest of us, we are rubes. Here's what he said:

“when you see what's happening in Japan, you are reminded that, for all our differences in culture or language or religion, that ultimately humanity is one. And when we face these kinds of natural disasters, whether it's in New Zealand or Haiti or Japan, then you think about your own family, and you think, how would you feel if you lost a loved one, or if your entire life savings were gone because of the devastation?”

Noting that because he grew up in Hawaii he has “a close personal friendship and connection to the Japanese people which makes “our concerns that much more acute,” the president said Japan “will come back stronger than ever.”

He may have been doing this to remind of us his birthplace. But I think he said it because he assumes the rest of us xenophobes see Japan as a scary foreign place, while he understands them because Hawaii gets a lot of Japanese tourists.

A thorium reactor is self-cooling and cannot melt down. If all power is removed from a thorium reactor it cools off. Thorium is a free by product of conventional mining operations. Why we are not building these is beyond me.

It appears to me that the radiation release in Japan was probably steam venting. Venting even a little steam will significantly cool a damaged light water reactor. This stream probably accounts for the reported 8X increase in background radiation. An 8X increase isn't a good thing, but its not a catastrophe either, especially in this case since the area has been evacuated and the increase caused by a one-time event.

This is Three Mile Island, except the accident was due to mother nature not operator error.

And like Three Mile Island, it is probable that more people will die in Kennedy family vehicles than as a result of radiation exposure in Japan due to this earthquake.

Imagine if instead of nuclear plants and fuel storage facilities, the Japanese had wind farms and solar panels. They would be 100% gone, totally destroyed. Certainly no radioactivity, but I think the loss would be far more total, expensive and longer to repair since the number and size of the required wind and solar units would be so large to equal the nuclear and conventional facilities' output.

The damage to Japan would be worse in that scenario and take much longer to fix. At the very least it would not be any better. The problem from this occurring to what they had, rather than to green tech will likely be far less serious long term and short term. Besides, imagine how ugly that beautiful country would be covered in windmills and solar panels.

While I am hardly a fan of the douchenozzle, I am not sure of what one might say in the face of such a tragedy--I give him a pass on this one, and am heartened we are making the sixth fleet available to the Japanese--

LIberals are notorious, and actually pretty successful at defining zero tolerance of environmental impact, zero civilian casualties in war, zero errors in the legal system as what we are all expecting - and what agencies are "mandated" to do.

Any accidential radiation release of any amount even inconsequential is defined as a crime against humanity, any coal mine explosion as murder, any oil spill as a crime, any chance a monster could not get perfect due process in the courts for the 3 people he killed in a robbery defined as "state-sponsored assassination".

People who come back and say - "No, our legal system in infallible, soldiers infallible in targeting in battle, there never will be another oil spill, nuke plants as opposed to any man-made structure or even the ground or ocean will remain perfect and undamaged - fall right into the Leftist trap.

There will be civilian casualties in war. Nuke plants might leak after a design basis earthquake and there might be some fuel damage. Engineering defects will be found in well-built and passed all codes bullet trains, buildings, levees in worse case disasters.

C4--where you been dude? I thought the mossad might have rendered you to israel :)

Good to see you back and your comments on target--engineers do the best they can to design infrastructure, but sometimes the forces of nature (eg a 9.1R quake and tsunami) transcent engineering design.

Casualties will be probably less than expected from such an event because of some top quality Japanese engineering--although that story will never be told.

Isn't this really revealing, though, of their concern that Americans believe that Barack Obama is hiding something about his origins.

Yes: every MSM journalist when addressing questions about Obama's mysterious origins--born outside of the U.S.? secret Muslim?--must add an editorial: "which of course is not true." One of the conventionally wise mediapersons did it on the Diane Rehm show just yesterday.

Maybee--one of the salutory effects of this tragedy in Japan will be to affirm the consequences of good engineering--Buildings in Tokyo, mostly base isolated, swayed but didnt fall. Compare Japanese engineering to the central US where I was an earthquake planner with CUSEC

A new madrid size event ( 3 quake of mag in the high 8s R) would collapse the major bridges accross the mississipi, and probably shut down Memphis which is the distribution center of the US--most all firms rely on just in time delivery which ultimately depends on the survivability of the memphis airport (and FEDEX)

A new madrid event would have severe national consequences--and we are far less prepared than were the Japanese.

-engineers do the best they can to design infrastructure, but sometimes the forces of nature (eg a 9.1R quake and tsunami) transcent engineering design.

Exactly.

But let me just add, the fact that an 8.9 quake followed by a tsunami did not absolutely level many cities in Japan and the accompanying nuclear power plants is a testament to the genius of modern engineering.

Roger and Maybee - In recent years there has been perhaps an overfocus on the "Hero 1st responders" and perhaps not as much on avoiding the need to utilize "hero 1st responders" through investing in top engineering, infrastructure robustness. And realizing that Muslims noted doing dry runs at hijacking planes in the two months before 9/11 or a Army major saying killing of Americans was justified in jihad to stop them from harming brother Muslims a month before he shot up Ft Hood - were probably a bad thing and should have been questioned rather than bank on "reactive, after the fact, law enforcement".

Yes, it is wonderful to see the "heroes of police, rescue workers, etc." passing out NBA sneakers in New Orleans, digging bodies from rubble of Haitian buildings made with 10% concrete, 90% beach sand and no rebar and passing out food to overbred masses with no government or emergency planning.

But isn't it better to have solid-built buildings like Chile's when you have a 200 times stronger than Port au Prince earthquake? Or Japans?

I also fault the media for their usual fetish on the "death count" as the only relevant stat initially, and mawkish focus on some fools who wouldn't evacuate buried under a cubic mile of volcanic ash or sitting on a rooftop demanding "de gumment" get them off the roof and give them food and fresh diapers and ice ASAP.

Most newsreaders and news writers lack the technical background to assess if things worked as designed, if agencies are responding as they should rather than angry crowds telling them they should. We get the tired old heroes&noble victims narrative. Plus the media's stupid "law enforcement" based mindset that any deaths in a disaster must "be the fault of somebody". Then, their near-childish faith in the Godlike powers of goverment and the Healing Powers of "The Leader" to "make everything alright, arrest the guilty, and 'bring closure" to the poor victims who chose to:1. Live in hurricane alley.2. Live below sea level in hurricane alley.3. Live near major earthquake active zones.4. Live on slopes of volcanos.5. Live at the banks of rivers that flood every 5 years.6. Think that any human error but their own is "criminal'.

Cedarford: "Roger and Maybee - In recent years there has been perhaps an overfocus on the "Hero 1st responders" and perhaps not as much on avoiding the need to utilize "hero 1st responders" through investing in top engineering, infrastructure robustness. "

Absolutely. Most of the buildings outside the tsunami zone held up. The people now trapped inside their flooded homes most likely have a supply of food and water for a few days, enough for the Japanese responders to come up with a specific plan.

Katrina was a marvel when it came to 1st responders getting people off roofs. The problem came when there was no place to put them and we ended up with masses of hungry,angry people at the civic center and Superdome.

"So do you fine conservatives think that this earthquake also resulted from a pact with the devil like the one in Haiti did?"

In the Philippines (some of) the evangelicals believed that Mt. Pinatubo blew because Aquino dedicated the country to the Virgin Mary, (some of) the Negritos believed it was because they'd been skimping on sacrifices to the volcano and used chickens instead of pigs, (some of) the communist people's army said it was because of something nefarious that the US military was doing at Clark involving, perhaps, subterranean nukes.

Or do Filippinos get a pass on the superstition because they're quaint brown people and don't know better than those Americans you mock?

The idea that there are spiritual causes to natural events is extremely well represented in History (the communists may reject the supernatural but fail to reject superstition in any case) and is actually rather *interesting* to someone who finds the world interesting and is willing to be thoughtful about it.

The question of Haiti is actually rather fascinating if one considers all of the elements of History that contribute to the situation there and the corruption and poverty that turns a natural disaster into generational devastation. Who's to say that a genesis in a pact with the devil isn't actually accurate short-hand to explain why Haiti is such a hell-hole? To say "no" is to engage a simplistic rejection of the role of religions to regulate communities. And while some American evangelicals voiced the thought, it's guaranteed that (some of) the people in Haiti were doing the same.

Japan is, of course, not a hotbed of poverty and corruption. It is also a country that lives in constant awareness of the threat of earthquake and tsunami. We're not going to find that a failure of infrastructure made the disaster worse than it would have been. But there will be those who look for spiritual explanations in a Japanese context.

Most likely we won't see those on the news.

And whatever Obama does, I hope that our aircraft carriers and their salt-water processing capabilities are arriving there now.

All of Obama's media lapdogs are very worried about Obama being exposed as ineligible (his father was never a US Citizen, so Obama 2 cannot be a natural born Citizen )before the next election cycle.The combination of states' enactment of eligibility statutes, and a larger percentage of the electorate awareness of his ineligibility will make it a real issue.The media is attempting to shut it all down. It matters not WHERE Obama was born or grew up. His father was not a US Citizen, and Obama admits to British Citizenship at birth through his father's Kenyan citizenship and the British Nationality Act of 1948.As such his multiple allegiance at birth voids the possibility of being a natural born Citizen, eligible to be POTUS.

" The Citizen child of an ALIEN has the same rights as the natural born Citizen CHILD OF A CITIZEN"---Joseph Story.

"He may have been doing this to remind of us his birthplace. But I think he said it because he assumes the rest of us xenophobes see Japan as a scary foreign place, while he understands them because Hawaii gets a lot of Japanese tourists."

This may be true.

I have to remind myself that my family isn't "normal", but culture and interests-wise, we're far more involved and connected to Japan than we are to Europe. True enough, it doesn't take much, but when your four year old points out the car window at a tall-ish building with a neon sign on the top and announces "Tokyo!" that you've skewed things rather far to the East. ;-)

OTOH, people in Hawaii live with an awareness of the ocean and earth's destructive capabilities that probably does make them sort of "in tune" with a similar experience in Japan. It's legitimate in the exact same sort of way that living with the awareness of Russia as a close next door neighbor instead of a place on the other side of the world lends an foreign policy mindset difference that is significant.

Synova - "It's legitimate in the exact same sort of way that living with the awareness of Russia as a close next door neighbor instead of a place on the other side of the world lends an foreign policy mindset difference that is significant."

You know, you can see Russia from Japan? (Kurile Islands)

Couldn't resist.

I could see Mexico from my then GF's house!So if I ever become a governor, I have that significant understanding of a foreign country..

OTOH, people in Hawaii live with an awareness of the ocean and earth's destructive capabilities that probably does make them sort of "in tune" with a similar experience in Japan

I agree with that, but then people on the Pacific West Coast can probably relate even more.I don't mind his own attempt to relate to Japan so much as I dislike his comments about different religions and cultures and Haiti.Japan considers itself a good friend and vital ally to the US. I think most there would be offended to hear themselves referred to as being very foreign to Americans and lumped in with the other countries..by the US President.

I have friends there and friends all across America, and never once did I see anything but a sincere outpouring of concern for the Japanese people and the tragedy happening to *them*. No confusion or need to self-relate (the bit about losing your own life savings to relate to Japanese people's homes being swept out to sea)

Or do Filippinos get a pass on the superstition because they're quaint brown people and don't know better than those Americans you mock?

And whilst we're at it, why aren't Filipinos ranked amongst the "Hispanics" in the US? If Hispanic is not about race, but about language, they too speak Spanish (at least the elites), have Spanish first names, and Hispanic cultural roots.

Oh- and there are other things about Hawaii that have a lot of Japanese influence, rather than the weather dangers which really aren't much like Japan's.There are Japanese speakers there, many shops accept the yen, and even restaurants have the set meal option that is common in restaurants in Japan. I appreciate Hawaii's ties to the culture of Japan.I reject the rest of his statement, which I believe doesn't give enough credit to Americans nor enough respect to the Japanese.